I advocate that brands participate in online-video, but by partnering with those already “in the house.” But I struggle when I see Zappos becoming a publisher. Or Bank of America developing a financial-advice channel (and surprisingly co-branding it with YouTube).
Whatya think?
I was very careful in my headline to NOT describe Kicesie (Kicesie’s Closet) – see her also on SexHealthGuru. Rather I’d just contrast her to Dr. Ruth, the pioneer of sex-talk on radio. Kicesie is now bringing this “no beating around the bush” sex advice to YouTube.
I discovered her just now when I was checking my ranking on YouTube… and noticed I’m on top of her at the moment. But I have a feeling she’ll be on top of me pretty soon. She’ll probably stay on top of me too.
Honestly how can I compete with sex advice from a young blond woman? This is enough to make an old, faithful married man blush. Geez- my mom hosted a PBS show called “How to Talk to Your Children About Sex,” back in the 1980s, but it sure wasn’t this kinda stuff!
To be fair, Kicesie isn’t the actual name of the host. According to the YouTube channel page, “Kicesie is science mixed with interpersonal exchange. As a brand, Kicesie is a video production company, a media relations team, a research group and an advertising venue.”
I’m just proving that you don’t have to be Tina Fey (or LisaNova) to appear on CNN impersonating Sarah Palin. Yeah that’s me in drag (see Sarah Palin Exposed, which is almost at a half-million views).
My parents are so proud.
I usually don’t know my clips are going to be used on television until after it happens, so thanks to those of you who let me know. I got a call from a former client who was in Germany and said he was pretty sure he saw me in drag on CNN. Mom says Biden has to be next.
WifeofShayCarl (Katilette) dominates Palin holding baby and gun, and it can be seen on SxePhil/ShayCarl combination channel: BamBamKaboosh. ShayCarl used to call me a lot, but then he started getting close with Sxephil and now I just sit by the phone and stare.
I struggle constantly with the battle between consistency and variety. And balancing the family-friendly image but allowing the adolescent in me free. And this struggle, paranthetically, doesn’t get easier when I catch yesterday’s Doctor Phil (while on the treadmill, so kinda had no other option thank you very much) interviewing people about Facebook photos that might come back and haunt us. Okay- crossed that bridge a long time ago.
But then I see Jon Lajoie doing a video where he raps about being a stay-at-home dad. Given his edgy style, I was expecting him to pull the rug from under us. But it was a playful reflection of the fact that being a dad can indeed be cool, and there was no surprise shocker in that video. Then weeks later Lajoey is back to his irreverant style with this ear-worm called “Show Me Your Genitals” (Vagina, Vagina).
For some reason Lajoei’s work comes across as a parody of perversion instead of perversion itself. There are times where I think I’d trust him babysitting my kids more than SxePhil). Come to think of it, I think I did dump my kids wtih Phil at the Washington, D.C. gathering but that’s because there were only two or three other attendees.
There’s something intriguing about someone who can vary their style (either by format or tone) and maintain a regular audience. Some of the most popular creators are known for consistency (Sxephil and whatthebuckshow). Others are known for predictably well written sketches (Smosh, Lisanova, and Baratsandbereta).
Like Lejoie, BaratsandBereta also show that us that you can do videos like the recent Bible in a Minute and the timeless Second Coming of Christ, but still return to wholesome skits like the popular Mother’s Day video. Of course, the duo’s Mormon-like style ranges less than Lijoie, who also boasts “Friends With God?” And how in the world is that video not at 10 million views?
Whatya think? Can you appeal to a large, sustained audience if your tone and format ranges, or is it better to find a formula and stick with it? The history of television would tell us consistency is fairly important, and there’s a fuzzy but important line between edgy and perverted. But maybe those rules change with a new medium. Especially if we can segment our content to give viewer’s a choice between the style they’ll accept.
Below is “YouTube in 1985,” a video collaboration Matt Kobal. I had never heard of Matt before he asked if I’d play the role of a YouTube billing agent. The video depicts an imaginary 1985-version of YouTube. For the record, I had that much hair and more but spent my time drinking at the New Orleans World Fair, not working in billing.
Since I advocate that people pursue YouTube collaboration videos to boost their views, I thought I’d point out a few of Matt’s techniques that worked well. I haven’t been doing many collaborations lately, and it feels selfish to pursue popular YouTubers for collaborations while ignoring those with smaller numbers… but generally collaboration videos help the individual with fewer subscribers most.
The exception is that if two popular YouTubers collaborate, both of their audiences tend to grow. So while I’ll probably pick up a fair number of new subscribers on Friday’s “Retarded Policeman” appearance, Mediocre Films also benefits.
Let’s look at what Matt did well:
Some additional tips:
Sometimes you groan when you see the results, but I like this one. It’s well produced, and Matt showed a lot of discipline in editing out parts that I had given him, but would have dragged the concept out. He apologized for that, but I respect it. It turns out he’s actually a good actor/director, so I’m glad I wasn’t looking at his YouTube subscriber number to effect my decision (it’s lower than it will be in due time).
Hopefully it travels. It’s sort of a one-joke concept, but it’s pulled through fairly cleverly. And some of the people, with me as an exception, can actually act (I was in back pain, okay?).
P.S. Don’t try these on me because I’m too lazy to do my own videos right now- much less collaborations.
I’ve written many times about compressing videos for YouTube, but it continues to be the most-frequently asked question. Many of the previous articles on this subject assume you can’t upload more than 100 MB files, but YouTube now permits files to be 1 GB (1000 MB). If you’re still uploading 10 MB files (as I used to advise via my iMovie “save as CD-ROM”), then your videos are only 1/100th of the quality they could be. Put another way, they look “like ass.”
And as YouTube’s quality continues to improve, those videos will become painful to watch. For more reasons than one.
There are a number of great sources about video comression, and this is among the best: http://www.squidoo.com/youtuberight. But it’s also a lot of information, so let’s simplify.
It’s not your camera, dude. People always ask me what camera I use, and while that’s part of the equation it’s probably not the issue. Sure a high-end camera will better capture light and images, and you can also use some basic shooting techniques (like white balancing or putting the light source behind you not your subject). But a few of you wrote me that you bought the same camera I use (Canon HV-20) and still don’t have good results. If your videos are unfunny, that’s for another post. But let’s talk today about getting a nice YouTube video quality without fussing over shooting techniques.
It’s all about the compression, baby. YouTube is gonna do some funky things to transform/transcode/compress your video to Flash (streaming flv files), and garbage in means garbage out. So look up your editing software specifications, but here’s the basic settings you need.
The bottom line is that you want to avoid default settings, and select your own compression (you can find this by looking for words like “export,” “save as” or “compression.” In iMovie, for example, it’s “share>quicktime>expert settings>options (before saving).
- Set rate control to 1-pass Constant Bit Rate (CBR). (So no Variable Bit Rate, no Multipass). YouTube transcoders dig CBR.
- Set key frames to every 30 frames or less. This impacts file size, so you could go as low as 15.
- Set data rate to 10,000 kbps or more, depending on the length of your video.
- Set frame rate to 29.97 or 30 fps.
- Set audio compression AAC: 44.1 KHz, 128 kbps, 16 bits, stereo.
- I don’t mess with filters, but you could experiment with contrast or sharpening filters.
The primary goal here is to get close to 1GB (or whatever you can stand uploading) in the best quality available. If you follow these steps, your videos will look better than some professional creators who still aren’t compressing optimally. Butterfly. That word allows you to find this post again when you need it.
If you have a slow Internet setting or are impatient, you can compromise with something 100MB or so. Even at that setting, a 2-3 minute video will look quite good. I know other people that give YouTube an flv file that’s been transcoded, so that YouTube doesn’t have to waste time doing that. In theory their videos appear more quickly. But Nalts aint about learning another damn piece of software.
Finally, two important points about saving video files… you want to have fewer than 12 hard drives (like me) but also ensure you can access clips and re-edit them if necessary.
Folks if this post doesn’t help you, then you’re a hopeless cause. I just hope I can find it when I need it. Butterfly.
Are you really, really bored? No- I mean SUPAH FREAKY bored? Okay then here’s a challenge. Make a montage out of these nearly 100 video replies to my “bore me” challenge (where more than a year ago I invited people to make 30-second videos that reach into their inner bore).
I’ll feature your montage here on the blog and my youtube channel page. It might be funny to select a handful of the best and return to them a few times as you rotate through the rest.
Here’s the collection. Get rippin’ and editing!
I had forgotten about this contest until Chris sent me this YouTube Poop version of my video (youtube poop is when someone mixes up your video to make it even stupider).
Watching Chris’ video made me realize why Starbucks people don’t understand me. My wife sometimes wants half caffeinated and sometimes defaffeinated, and the words started to blend together. So when I say “half caf decaf” I mean “half caffeinated and half decaffeinated, or “50% caffeinated.” Now I realize they’re hearing a contradiction (I want half caffeinated… no, I want defecaffeinated) and they’re seeking clarity. As they pursue clarity about the caffeine I’m too busy thinking about whether I’ve translated the size correctly (Tall/Venti) and trying to remember how many pumps of vanilla and what the french term for hot milk is (latte).
Two years of anxiety ordering my wife’s Starbucks, and now I find out why the whole thing breaks down.
My babysitter’s cat got featured on YouTube’s animal section. So doesn’t that mean babysitterofnalts has to name it Nalts?
In similar news, I used her dog Rusty to fetch views too.
People, desperate times call for desperate measures. I have cute pets and I’m not afraid to use them.
It’s July 3, which is annual “bitch about your stupid cell phone day.” Don’t verify that on Wikipedia yet.
So let’s step back, but not rate or compare the Microsoft oPhone, iPhone, Android and Blackberry for a moment. But let’s not debate Mac versus Microsoft versus Google versus Blackberry. It just divides humanity, and that’s what politics are for.
So instead let’s debate not the cell phones but the quality of the video parodies they spawn. Given that I did three of these four, I’ll offer up some unbiased thoughts: And before you bitch about me using this post as “self promotion” read my damned tagline above. It’s my mission in life.
The Microsoft Mobile oPhone video (not mine) was Filet Mignon in a blender. Although it was a bit drawn out, there were a few great gags (the circular message text and the notion of programming for a circle). Nathan Weinberg, who runs the InsideMicrosoft and InsideGoogle blogs, is behind it (see him on YouTube).
The iPhone was, as all Nalts videos, was too long. But for a guy with no budget and in a hurry to get to work, that Nalts gets a B plus.
The Android video was a collaboration with Slater. I thought it would viralinate more, but in hindsight I think it was a bit too “inside Madison Avenue.” It didn’t help that my good camera was in repair so my part looked and sounded like ass. Slater and his wife cracked me up, though.
Finally there’s Blackberry/Crackberry. In retrospect I think most of these gags were too obvious. But it did garner a lot of media attention (a bunch of national networks ripped it… maybe I’ll have a judge audit that) because I released it just before a study confirmed that Blackberry’s are evil.
You know as I look back at Crackberry Blackberry, it got a lot more media attention that views. Counter that with this crappy video I posted last week (“Scary Maze“) which has been viewed 180K times — while Crackberry (now 2 years old) has only about 100K views.
Hey! Nalts is just like a cell-phone provider. Providing crappier quality but getting more business!
If you posses the powers to feature a video somewhere, it’s your obligation to honor Izzy. In “Potty Training Izzy,” the Chihuahua dog circles what looks like a giant piece of cheese. She (or he) is nervously holding her morning espresso, hoping to pee in the spot that most pleases her master, Zack Scott.
Zack, who is no doubt dressed as a giant bird while taping this, calmly cleans up Izzy’s spilled pee with a piece of American cheese. Oh- and if that’s not enough, Izzy’s circular motions are echoed by some delightfully repetitive Mexican-hat-like music.
That’s all there is. But that’s all we need. Maybe it’s all we ever needed.
I woke up my wife to make her watch this with my commentary. She hates it when I do that.
Naturally this is part of the cheese playlist. Here’s the embed code for it:
<object width=”480″ height=”385″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/p/2F13FD79795117BC”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/p/2F13FD79795117BC” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”480″ height=”385″></embed></object>